Alfred Munda SamForay, Kenema, Sierra Leone.
We are pleased to report that the wives of Moinina Fofana, Alieu Musa Kondewa of the CDF and Issa Hassan Sesay of the RUF all arrived safely yesterday at Mpaga Prisons in Southern Rwanda for a two-week visit with their husbands. Fofana and Kondewa are both serving prison sentences of 15 and 20 years, respectively, imposed by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Fofana and Kondewa along with former CDF National Coordinator, Late Chief Sam Hinga Norman, were indicted for twice taking up arms to establish constitutional government in Sierra Leone after Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and soldiers of the Sierra Leone Army rebelled against the government and plunged the country into an eleven-year civil war. Largely as a result of these indictments and the subsequent death in detention of Chief Hinga Norman, political power in Sierra Leone dramatically shifted from the South-East to the North-West following the 2007 general and presidential elections which brought to power Norman’s friend and ally, Ernest Bai Koroma, of the All People’s Congress (APC). As it is written, “The stone which the builders rejected have become the chief cornerstone.”
We regret to inform, however, that the infant son of Mr. Kondewa died late last month from a brief illness. Another son also passed away in January under similar conditions. We are extremely grateful to the Arabella Foray Peace Foundation and representatives of the Bo, Kailahun and Kenema District Branches of the All People’s Congress party for their financial and moral support to the Kondewa families during their loss as well as the Hinga Norman family during the third anniversary of the death of Mr. Norman. As always, a friend in need is a friend indeed. We are also sadly informed by Mr. Fofana that his family has been given a short notice of eviction from their rented property on Gerehun Road in Bo.
With respect to the Norman family, we are pleased to report that the gold m mining accident in Mbawomahun, Valunia Chiefdom which would have involved several members of the family was false in its entirety. Both government and family sources from Mongere, ten miles from the mines, conclude that no loss of life was occurred there as recently reported by Richard Margao of the BBC Focus on Africa. BBC has subsequently retracted the story and Mr. Margao and some members of KISS-FM station in Bo have reportedly been invited to the CID for their role in filing this bogus and alarming report.
On a partly personal note, I am pleased to report that I have returned safely to my base in Kenema following a one day working visit to Talia, Yawbeko Chiefdom, Bonthe District with the Outreach Branch of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The delegation which included the entire hierarchy of the court including the Registrar, Defender, Prosecutor and Public Affairs was in Ywabeko at the invitation of the youths of the chiefdom to erect a memorial to the war dead. Talia, Yawbeko was the home of the most famous operational base of the war, Base Zero, home of the Kamajors. Although the delegation was politely received, I was their strictly as an observer and representative of the CDF families.
Photo: Fofana and Kondewa.
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